(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I’d ideally give this book 3.5 stars. Although I did find this really entertaining to read, it took me a little while to get fully settled into this story… and I felt things kept changing faster than I was expecting and that seemed just a bit too fast.
I thought the very first scene of the book was really intriguing, but it was somewhat confusing and I didn’t think the background was explored in a satisfactory way. While I did like the hints of feelings between Nicole and Jack, I felt that things between them were rushed. I would have liked to know more about Jack’s past and his family. I didn’t feel that their relationship was allowed to develop at a natural rate.
I did think that a bit too much of the story was told through dialogue, rather than being able to see events happening. There were passages of time that were skipped over that was a bit confusing, due to there not being enough development shown.
I did like the fact that there were no true bad guys, although it would have been good to have the opportunity to make judgments about the different races for myself. Most of the characters were clear and easy to follow, though. And it was good to see Nicole’s relationship with her father and her grandfather. I would have liked the opportunity to learn more about her mother, though… but it was good to see hints of a past that made her hard and bitter. I had a lot of sympathy for Nicole, even though I think there was too much telling rather than showing about her intelligence.
It was good to be able to see the kind of technology they had and that there needed to be an ambassador to the League. Although I was missing the first part of this story, I did find this book to be really easy to follow.
It would have been good to have the opportunity to see a redemption style storyline, since one was hinted at towards the end of this book. I’m not sure I’d read any more books in this series… perhaps to see what will happen with some of the secondary characters. I did like the fact that there were different sides to the histories, though.
Ink of Blood 